Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #71926 in DVD
• Released on: 2006-04-10
• Rating: Exempt
• Aspect ratio: 1.33:1
• Number of discs: 2
• Formats: Box set, Classical, Colour, DVD-Video, PAL
• Original language: Italian
• Subtitled in: German, English, French, Italian, Spanish
• Number of discs: 2
• Running time: 209 minutes

Synopsis
In Mozart's great comic opera COSI FAN TUTTE, the cynical bachelor Don Alfonso makes a wager with two young Italian army officers, Ferrando and Gugliemo, that their fiancées, sisters Dorabella and Fiordiligi, cannot remain faithful to them. On the pretense of being called to war, the young men disguise themselves as Albanian noblemen and begin to woo the sisters. After a number of comic failures, Dorabella and Fiordiligi succumb to the amorous advances, and the men must concede that 'cosi fan tutte': thus are all women. In this 1998 production, under the musical direction of Nikolaus Harnoncourt, Delore Ziegler and Edita Gruberova play the roles of the fickle sisters and Luis Lima and Ferruccio Furlanetto act as the deceptive lovers.

Customer Reviews

Almost perfect
I am no fan of studio-shot 'films' of operas. There is no substitute for the sound of the singers' feet on the boards, the muffled shifting of scenery in the background, the interaction (good or bad) with the audience which a live stage production provides. I approached this DVD warily, therefore, although the cast was too mouth watering to pass it up altogether.

I was wonderfully surprised. It is by far the best studio opera I have yet seen, thanks in great part to the brilliant (and sadly mourned) influence of Jean-Pierre Ponnelle directing what was to be his final work.

It is thanks, also, to a wonderful cast of singers, whom we now know as veterans, but then in their prime (the film was shot in 1988). Edita Gruberova (Fiordiligi) pulls out all the stops and gives us a bravura performance - the coloratura rationed, and all the better for it. Delores Ziegler is a superlative Dorabella, Ferruccio Furlanetto (Guglielmo) vibrates in his 'young buck' persona (as opposed to the rotund Leporellos of the modern era) and Paolo Montarsolo is a fine Don Alfonso both musically and in appearance and presence. Yet even above these, the great Teresa Stratas reminds us with a captivating Despina just what a force she was.

There is really no weak link, but if one has to find something to criticise then Luis Lima as Ferrando is perhaps not quite as polished vocally nor as comfortable an actor as the rest, but this is marginal.

The whole thing looks utterly gorgeous, with even the 'outdoor' scenes (which can be absurd) pleasing to the eye.

This is a production for male chauvinist pigs (the 18th was a century for them, I fear). Visually Ziegler and Gruberova are fashioned into personifications of femininity; floating, wide-eyed creatures of pastels, flounces, and massed blonde curls. I found myself fancying both of them something rotten (not really a good thing - it interferes with the art).

There is one small bone of contention: the rather odd idea to have Dorabella appear to see through the disguise of Guglielmo well before the finale. This is, frankly, confusing, and is perhaps best overlooked as a foible.

Included is a fascinating half-hour documentary showing Ponnelle in the heat of direction, rounding off an excellent and highly recommended three hours entertainment.

This review refers to the Region Code 0 DVD.